Zeeland mostly lays under sea level. As soon as people inhabited the area the struggle against the water began.
In the early middle ages the first dikes appeared, but this proved to be a poor solution against the sea. Not a century went by when the land was not flooded. More than 100 villages disappeared into the sea. Many times dikes were breached, sometimes it took years to reclaim the land, some lands have never been reclaimed like Reimerswaal.
In some areas you can find a reminder, like the Plompetoren between Burghsluis and de Schelphoek.
“The battle against the water is like a red thread that runs through the history of Zeeland”
Memories are to be found which mark the floods of the 1st of February 1953, the biggest natural disaster of the last century in the Netherlands and Western Europe. It was a long lasting North Western storm that made the sea level rise 4 to 5 metres. In the middle of the night, whilst people were sleeping, the water flooded over the dikes and destroyed them. The disaster cost 1835 human lives but also 200.000 animals. Houses and buildings were damaged or destroyed. On many houses and public buildings there are markings to indicate the level of the sea on 1-2-’53. Many cemeteries hold the same markings to show how the battle against the water was lost.
The disaster was burnt into the memories of all Zeeuwen. Everybody agreed that such a disaster should not be allowed to occur ever again. A special Delta commission was set up that same year and they had a plan, the Delta plan.
